Building the Future - How Can Architects Harness the Power of AI

Building the Future - How Can Architects Harness the Power of AI
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[00:00:00]

Stephen Drew: It's a late one. We're getting there. Let me get my bells ready. Gotta get the bells ready for the AI algorithm, the matrix. Neo blue pill, red pill. Who knows? Maybe one day. I won't even need to present this. I can just put it into chat. G P T. I'll get an avatar. The whole show will be done. That wouldn't be fun.

Okay. 15 seconds

Computers at the ready. Let's go. Hello everyone. Thank you for being here. I really appreciate it. We've got a late special so you can crack open a beer. And don't worry, this is [00:01:00] definitely not generated by all the AI algorithms yet. You gotta deal with me until then. And on that note, I've got an awesome guest that I actually met the other day in an exhibition, and the exhibition was loosely focused around ai and I was like, I think I recognize you.

And I've actually seen this chap on YouTube. And on that note, I've got the awesome Amir Nouri, who's an Architectural designer in London. How are you, sir?

Amir Noori: Hello. Thank you very much.

Stephen Drew: You've got your virtual round of applause there. Just imagine, you are in the room, no computers yet, but Amir, I've seen your YouTube channel before, but but maybe people haven't. Okay. And for those people that haven't,

Amir Noori: Yeah.

Stephen Drew: a little bit about yourself.

Amir Noori: So first of all I've been a big fan of your podcast, podcasts and your guests that you bring on. I think they are amazing people that are, they're doing so many cool things, so I'm really excited to be [00:02:00] here in the first place. And, yeah, thanks for inviting me to be part of your broader list of guests,

um,

Stephen Drew: You haven't survived the podcast yet. You might be fed up with me by the end of the hour,

Amir Noori: in terms of YouTube. Yeah, so in YouTube I talk about the intersection of Architecture and technology and sometimes entrepreneurship because one of the kind of struggles that I had as an Architecture student when I was studying in Westminster University. Was that, we were doing so many cool projects and doing very interesting studies in different subjects.

I, I spent like half a term studying how pineapples grew. And that was so cool. I learned everything about pineapples and it was interesting that I was studying Architecture. I got to really dive into really specific subjects that are not necessarily in Architecture in [00:03:00] any sense.

But it developed my problem solving skills. And I was like, man, like Architecture might not only, I. Result in, Architecture education might not result in building buildings, but it can also be that people from Architecture do all sort of things because they're good at problem solving.

So the idea for me was that, entrepreneurship and, trying to do very inspiring things that matter for society

Stephen Drew: Yeah.

Amir Noori: is something that yeah excites me a lot. So in my YouTube channel, I'll try to talk about, these sort of feelings that I have, these works that I do aside from designing buildings.

And also because I'm very interested in technology. I talk about how technology could change the way we practice Architecture as well as how we can use technology to make us more creative, make us more efficient and all that [00:04:00] stuff.

Stephen Drew: Nice. I I enjoy it. I particularly enjoy the images. I just I just double checked. Thank goodness I have actually subscribed,

Amir Noori: Oh, use of card.

Stephen Drew: that

Amir Noori: Wow.

Stephen Drew: embarrassing if I didn't. But bizarrely you caught my attention with the video. We talked about it just before we went live with how can Architects make money in the Metaverse?

And a few months ago, Amira, I was doing a lot of content about the Metaverse and I worry that if I did, if I talk about it too much, I'm gonna get people who unsubscribe to it. But, it was a really good video. Now, at the moment, might be a nice segue to talk about what we were focusing on the bit today.

seems to be a hot discussion in Architecture, but also in the wider culture of artificial intelligence. Now what's, I've been in the marketing space before and haven't built a website and all this stuff. I was using Jarvis, which is based on Jack, g p t the programming language [00:05:00] underneath it last year.

But it all kicked off in November and everyone started freaking out that we're generating text. You can see, can write replies to emails, all this stuff. You can use these subscriptions, use this text, in copyright, which could potentially replace people's jobs. And now we're starting to talk about it in Architecture.

So on that point, The role of AI in Architecture and design. I would be very keen on your perspective on that. Have you got any thought so far on what you think the role of AI is gonna be in Architecture and design?

Amir Noori: Yeah, sure. I think when we talk about ai, basically are talking about a broader. Term that also encapsulates AI text image and generative ai. But I think as architects, we've been using AI for the last [00:06:00] maybe 10 years, for the last decade in variety of ways. Mostly maybe in analysis and post occupants analysis, energy analysis and all that stuff.

So AI has been a great help in the construction industry as well as Architecture for a long time. The only thing that has changed during the last six to eight month is that we have now access to very powerful tools which are built on machine learning. Generative ai and they are capable of creating images based on prompts or descriptions that we as designers or as users give them.

So that has opened a whole new conversation about how we approach design. Cuz previously we used to, do design very differently. We used to first like in maybe 50 years ago, we didn't have [00:07:00] any computers. We used manual methods of design and then computers came, and then we used computers in cat and then Revit came, and BIM was introduced.

And so it has been a lot of changes in the ways that we approached design since, the last. 50 years even.

Stephen Drew: Yeah.

Amir Noori: So I think AI is part of this kind of time frame of, timeline of how we going to, how technology is influencing how we design. So from the last six months when generative, when text to Image, AI started to be a thing, and websites like Mid Journey and Dolly and tools like Stable Diffusion were introduced.

A lot of artists and designers and enthusiasts started to use them to create ideas that were in their head and they tried to communicate it via [00:08:00] words with the algorithm and tried to. Visualize it with ai. So AI has been a very powerful visualization tool as well as a creative tool.

So it's very different to tools such as N Escape or vra, which are only for visualization. But they are capable of implementing creativity in their workflow and process as well. So that has changed the game completely. And if you look at images that were produced using the mid journey six months ago, they are completely different to what we see today.

So going from abstract images maybe if you scroll down, I might have some early on.

Stephen Drew: Oh wow. There's loads here. Beautiful eye candy. I'll put up your your website now, if anyone wants to check it out while we browse through. Oh. Okay, so I'm going on the bottom. Are they? Because this is

Amir Noori: Yeah maybe, [00:09:00] um,

Stephen Drew: before. Okay.

Amir Noori: so I don't have any old one, but if you can see the one in the top left, the second one in the middle, like the staircase, even that one. So these are more abstract or even like before. So these were version three of mid journey, but there was a version two as well, which was much more abstract.

And. But it was still cool. Like we were we were playing with it and we were very surprised with the outcomes that it was giving us. And we were thinking that, oh my God, this is the end of Architecture. But obviously you were too excited. And I'll tell you why. But the point is that it has surprised us in a way that has developed throughout this last six months in a way that now you can almost get very powerful renders orlen render like images, like the ones that you're seeing, which look like that they have been generated with com with, great powerful computer [00:10:00] engines.

Stephen Drew: Yeah.

Amir Noori: And processors, which they aren't. They are they are I mean they are, but like the users don't have that G P U at home. So it is they're using mid journeys GPUs and, the kind of backend system. So it has it has been a great progress in how these tools work and visualize things.

And also they are still under development and every few months there are new features coming out and still surprises with the stuff that they bring on. For example, mid Journey added a new tool, which was called Blend, which you can almost blend different styles or different colors or like images together and create new sort of images that are the result of blending those two all.

Two to five images. And there are so many other features that [00:11:00] are specific to each platform. So I don't

Stephen Drew: Yeah.

Amir Noori: I'm not gonna very, be very specific about that. But for whoever, whoever is interested, I'm teaching all of this in my workshop so you can join the workshop to learn all of that.

But the conversation is that basically we have found this new powerful tool, which we could essentially make our design process much more creative and much more efficient. Things that you used to do within weeds. Now you can do it in few hours or few days. And It's there, there's a l a level of creativity also added to this process that can also help you but also not help you as well.

Like it depends how you use it. So it has pros and cons, has constraints and potentials. Very specific to how [00:12:00] you use the program. You can use the creativity to boost your design. But you can also be very limited if you don't know how to use the algorithm cuz algorithm is very creative and can mislead you if you don't know how to use it.

So the key is that as designers, we don't just remain enthusiasts. In relation to ai. And we actually dive deep into it and learn how to take control over the algorithm. Cuz when you take control over the algorithm, you can steer the design, otherwise the design will be steered by the algorithm.

And you don't want that. You still want to be the designer. You still want to direct the design. So that's the key thing and that's what I try to teach in my workshops.

Stephen Drew: Very cool now, years ago. Sure. My age, again, I would speak to Architecture practices who were adopting BIM at the time, and there was this resistance of me sometimes to go [00:13:00] along with tag. Maybe it's a fad, and you would have different people, like some people embracing it. Now in essence, most Architecture practices apart from maybe certain high end residential or people doing a lot of refurbishments, most Architecture companies are saying Revit.

And my question to you that I wonder ponder on is how do architects adapt in this new age of artificial intelligence? Maybe if anyone's resistant, what would you say to them is like baby steps to go into it? One quick one. I will add that even in my business I find chat g p t particularly amazing, but just get in the four hour my head really quickly cuz I'm not, even though I'm a chatter box like here, I'm not the best at writing stuff and I find if I put a few keywords in, it just fills in what I want.

But you are right, it takes direction. It's not really writing something for me. I'm not doing a book. I'm just getting an idea out there. [00:14:00] In your opinion. What have you seen that could be a good way for architects to adapt this ai?

Amir Noori: I think, yeah that's really good points. I would say, first of all, AI is going to be a tool and is a tool. It's not going to be a designer. It's not going to replace you as a designer because at the end of the day, AI by itself cannot do anything, and you have to guide it, and you have to direct it.

So there has been obviously like we are still very new to ai and so many people have not even heard of ai. You might be surprised in in terms of te text to image ai and what's websites like Mid Journey produce. So a lot of people are still alien with the idea of text image and they're not really sure how they work.

So they, because AI is a kind of very slightly ambiguous word, isn't it? It's like

Stephen Drew: Yeah.

Amir Noori: you, you're not sure if you're not a tech [00:15:00] savvy. Person, you might not really know what AI does and what AI really is. So for a lot of people, I understand that AI generally might be the term itself might be quite scary.

And I don't see a lot of res resistance to, to ai. I see a lot of uncertainty that people are not sure that, what is this tool doing and how is it doing? A lot of my friends who see my work, they think that I have modeled, very complex models that kind of were rendered in certain ways to produce, the designs that I have produced.

Whereas if you start to use ai, you start to understand how you know it, it works, it actually works with descriptions and it works with words that you give to the pla to the algorithm, and the keywords are very important. So the kind [00:16:00] of your tool set as a designer is your vocabulary and how you can put them together in sentences to give you the best results that you're looking for.

So your tool set is completely different to computer tools I don't know, Photoshop or any modeling or any 3D modeling software. So you work with your vocabulary and you work with the kind of imagination that you have and you, you have to engineer your prompt so that you can get the best out of the algorithm.

So for sure, it's a different approach to design and approach to how we normally design concepts. But for people to get, their hands dirty with ai, I would really recommend start using platforms like Mid Journey to only produce very simple stuff only to understand how they work.

And once you understood how they work, gets [00:17:00] much easier. And I guess I want to say something I forgot, but I may.

Stephen Drew: Don't worry, it's seven o'clock. We're all chilled out here. It's all good. I've got it'll but that thought will come back in a second and when it does just interrupt me and go, ah, but until then, the only bit I'd like to add on, and it's very interesting before we move on, is you touched upon mid journey.

You've touched upon a few different ways of ai. The only other thing that drives me crazy at the moment is I do think that ethically, gray area where some companies go, oh, we got ai. And I'm like, dude, this is not ai. So I do think there is example, know some software out there was said, say ai, they're not really ai.

I think a few good examples before you move on, like mid Journey tends to be the Architect choice in terms of chat two images, chat and chat. G P T is the popular one in terms of. Generating text. But maybe there's one or two others that I haven't heard of as well.

I'm beginning to hear there's some AI and like the BIM space and generative

Amir Noori: Yeah.

Stephen Drew: [00:18:00] space. Is that correct?

Amir Noori: Yeah, I think that there, there is an integration of ai, so tools in Revit as well now. So they are implementing it in different softwares like Grasshopper, Revit but still early days. But I think the prospects and the future for this is very interesting because once you can integrate, this amazing piece of technology with a powerful, another powerful tool like Robert, you can do so much with it.

At the moment, it's just scratching the surface. It's just what? It's, what it's doing. It's basically taking renders from a rabbit, like very raw renders of like black and white bulk of model and turn it into realistic sort of renders with some creativity implemented into it as well. So it's like scratching the surface.

But I think we, we will hear about very ex more exciting tools that are going to be integrated in these [00:19:00] softwares that we currently use. So AI is going to be part of the workflow anyway, because it's going to be, even now Photoshop has AI tools, but just, we don't call it like ai, like text Photoshop's Content Over Feel is an AI tool you have worked with that.

So that's like a powerful thing. And So many sort of small features will be probably added to a lot of programs that we use. And they will help a lot in different ways. So we, we will definitely hear a lot about the more of these features and more of these tools that will come as individually individually marketed products but also integrated features in the softwares that we currently use in our workflow as well.

Stephen Drew: Yeah. Very fair. Said. And listen, I've got a few more

Amir Noori: Okay.

Stephen Drew: which actually you wrote them. So spoiler alert we were brainstorming, but Amir's the expert in [00:20:00] this area. If anyone's got any questions now though, feel free to jump in. I'll check the comments before we go.

Oh, Matt's actually puts a really good suggestion, which says there, as created by Evolve Lab is a great tool you to lose utilizing ai. Haven't there a chance to test it? But they shared some great videos. Thanks Matt. That's a really cool suggestion. Is that when you've heard of before Amir, or

Amir Noori: No, just searching it now

to see what it. is. The space moves really fast, isn't it? while we have a look at that, I will bring it up onto the screen in the second Joe Rogan's Tale, but maybe emit you can fill in the gaps while we were, while I bring that up, because the next question I had was the limitations and potentials of using AI InDesign.

Stephen Drew: So to kinda set the scene on them, I got the Mid Journey bug. Exactly like what, what happened? A few. We, a few [00:21:00] months ago, mid Journey came out, Hamza was using it. I was like, what is this crazy thing I'm seeing on Instagram? Then I suddenly fancied playing around with it and all this stuff, but there wasn't really a point or a purpose to what I was doing.

I was just don't know, flirting with the technology per se. In terms of Architecture, I don't see someone's. degree in diploma being replaced with Mid Journey. That being said though, are there case examples where it could be really good, maybe like a mood board or maybe to get a feel of work?

What's your opinions on the limitations, but also the potential scope for using AI InDesign.

Amir Noori: Yeah, I think A lot of people think that AI is only capable of producing very wacky futuristic type of images, like parametric style and very very unbuildable stuff. And I have to say that AI can do a lot of [00:22:00] things and it's up to you as a designer that how you guide it and how you direct it to get the best possible outcome from it.

So I've been working on live projects in real life, which are a design with ai, and these are things that. We previously did in, we used to do in in, in 3D modeling or the kind of other ways that we design and visualize things, but now we are doing it in another way with ai and that's, that has been really powerful to see.

And I've been really surprised by how helpful they can be. So a lot of people still think that AI can only be a tool just to play and just to, have fun with. But I have to say, based on experience of, working with AI seriously for the past six months, AI can be serious game changer in [00:23:00] business and your day-to-day design workflow in practice. So if you cannot produce what you want from ai, it doesn't mean that AI is not capable of producing it. It is just, it just means that you are not you haven't learned to take control over the algorithm in a way that you can get what you want from it. So you have to educate yourself and you have to it's like a skill.

So you can't learn Revit overnight. You have to, work with it and learn it throughout weeks and months. AI is the same thing. You have to play with it. It's not like a one night thing that you play and learn completely. So you have to really understand how it works understand how it reacts to certain keywords.

Understand how certain keywords next to each other produce what. And what are the parameters that you can change? So there are loads of different tools that you can play with ai [00:24:00] text to image in different platforms to be able to take control over your outcome. So in terms of limitations and potentials there is a lot of potential, as I said.

In terms of limitations let me talk about the potentials. One of the potentials that I see with AI and something that I have been working on for the past few months is that in the stages of zero to three which is like design visibility study and like conceptual stage AI can be a game changer.

Absolutely. In the way that you design and also in the Timeframe that you design, because it can be make your process much more efficient in terms of time. And you can present stuff in a client meeting and alter it in the same at the same time while you're sitting with your clients as they talk about what they want to see next InDesign.

So you can alter this facade in [00:25:00] two minutes and show them the result. And you can talk about how this new extension could possibly change in certain way in, very short amount of time. And that's really valuable. So it makes the processes much more efficient in terms of time as well.

So in terms of feasibility study, in terms of conceptual work it's a really great tool to sketch as a as a sketch sketching tool. It's really great in terms of limitations I see a lot of people trying to outsource their creativity to ai. As you said, like you are using AI to get ideas, right?

You're not completely giving AI full control over your what you're trying to write or what you're trying to create. A lot of people, I I saw that they try to outsource their creativity. They try to give the AI almost a hundred percent room and power to design for them the project, which is not what we want.

We [00:26:00] want to be able to, be the designer still

Stephen Drew: mm.

Amir Noori: save our seats and direct ai. You have to. Treat AI as a tool and not not a kind of creative person that can think for you. AI cannot think for you. AI can be directed by you, but it can help you to think better and become more creative.

I would say the limitation is that you cannot outsource your creativity. You cannot outsource your design. You cannot outsource your brain to ai. You can only direct it.

Stephen Drew: Yeah, said. While and listen, I agree. It makes me laugh when people go AI build me a house. It's oh my goodness, that's not gonna, it's not gonna be that simple, isn't it? So fully agree with your point there. Matt, remember, oh, I'm gonna bring up Matt's other question up in the second, but Matt talked about this Vera software, so I've actually found it.

Looks cool. [00:27:00] here's the video. It's got features. So what I'm deducing from that, although I'm not the most savvy right now, and it is late and it's seven o'clock, but this is basically like a model and then. The a it's an AI text prompt based rendering, which actually seems really quite cool cuz when I was a part one, the amount of hours I spent just photo sharpening trees, just, wasting my life away because it was important to the image.

At the same time though, if I was not Photoshop all those trees in, I'd probably be doing something else, right? Which is, I think the strongest argument for AI at the moment is to give the most mundane, boring mind blowingly, like frustrating, rudimentary, useless tasks to ai. Then you can do other stuff. So here it is, there's the suggestion.

Amir Noori: I think this is what I also talked about in Rabbit. So [00:28:00] the rabbit integration with ai I think it's integration with stable diffusion is the same thing. So you get the model but AI renders it as you want. So you describe how you want this to be rendered, like in terms of materiality and what you want to see in the image.

And it does it for you with like variations and alterations and everything.

Stephen Drew: Very cool. And just the disclaimer this show is not sponsored, so I don't know, I've never hear the V lab until now. That being said, Autodesk, if you do want to drop me a message, I will gladly talk about all the stuff you've done. I'm definitely can be bought out. So if anyone's got a few pounds they want to talk about, let me know, but we're not there yet.

So this is the real deal talking. Cool. What I was gonna say, Matt has a good question. Matt's doing all the work for us at the moment,

Amir Noori: Thanks, Matt.

Stephen Drew: sit back and relax. Yeah. Matt says, where you mentioned [00:29:00] designing with ai, whatever AI tools have you used other than Mid Journey for Architecture.

Are there any specific that you've worked on Amira that

Amir Noori: Yeah, I think Dolly is a good tool in the out painting. So Dolly out painting feature allows you to imagine the rest of the image outside the canvas. Sometimes it's really handy. Sometimes you can fix things with Dolly house painting. You can fix your proportions or like the way you frame the image.

That's really handy. Chat. G B T is very handy. People think that chat, G B T is only for boring people who want to use like, text based ai, but I have to say it's very powerful in terms of giving you ideas, in terms of if you're designing for a brief it can give you really inspiring ideas in terms of how you can boost the brief and make it much more exciting.

Suggest what kind of elements you can use in your design [00:30:00] based on this style that you're creating the space. If you are designing a very kind of minimalist style space chat g PT can give you all sort of ideas of, which. Which design is you could look for furniture, for example, to source your furniture and use their product in your minimalistic space?

In terms of interiors or what sort of colors would go well together or things like this. Another great AI tool TA use for organizing my projects and my workflow is Notion and Notion has now integrated AI within it. So you can if you apply for Notion ai, because Notion itself doesn't have ai, so you have to register for Notion AI to receive the AI in notion as well.

So if you get notion AI makes your life 10 times easier in terms of the stuff that you [00:31:00] write in terms of the stuff that you cause. Matt mentioned about designing Architecture, but behind the scenes of designing Architecture, there's a whole lot of organization and, project, workflow in terms of documenting stuff.

So in, in the backend side of designing Architecture, a notion can be a great tool and a huge time server for you to organize your workflow and projects. So these are my

favorites.

Stephen Drew: I

Amir Noori: Okay.

Stephen Drew: you what, I'll have to check out Notion. There's one, I'll throw a one in the mix as well, which is really cool

Amir Noori: Hmm.

Stephen Drew: discovered by Fluke, which is pragma.ai. So I'll Chuck, I'll bring up that now. And that one there's a little bit of overlap. There's a little bit of overlap. I'll bring it up just so people can have a look at.

But, so I do a lot of like copying and paste and templates and [00:32:00] stuff. It's part of my job. There's like this, I like to customize certain bits, but like architects writing emails all the time. All this stuff, right? So this thing, you can use snippets and so whether you are LinkedIn or whatever, you can whack in a snippet and it's

Amir Noori: Oh wow.

Stephen Drew: and you can link it with your OneDrive and all this stuff.

And I really like it. I've spoken to the developer. It's really cool stuff. So this is not a sponsor again, but it's like what I'm using at the moment. So check out Pragma. It's really cool. I like it. I think it's a great tool because it transcends an ecosystem and I agree with you. I think Notion is amazing.

Like this little thing here is my little, all my snippets and all this stuff there. So there you go. I've revealed one as well. The cat's out, so I've thrown one in the mix. And you're right though, because Architecture, it's not just all the drawings and the glamorous renders, it's Excel documents, isn't it?

It's all this stuff that we do, which I think is really important. yeah,

Amir Noori: another website [00:33:00] called future pdf dot com, I think future pia.io.

Stephen Drew: future

Amir Noori: Which p is pia, like Wikipedia. So this is like future PIA

Stephen Drew: Oh got

Amir Noori: io.

Stephen Drew: forgive

Amir Noori: Um, So Edia, you can look up for so many different AI tools that come into the market every single day. So you can explore which ones go well with your workflow and things that you wanna enhance in terms of efficiency.

So I would look at that as well.

Yeah,

Stephen Drew: I bet you though, and this is between me and you and the audience, it's gonna be a lot of, there's gonna be a lot of amazing ones. A lot of them are going to die as well.

Amir Noori: Yeah, for sure.

Stephen Drew: cuz but that's part of innovation, isn't it? And it'll be interesting seeing which ones work and so on and so forth.

My goodness. We've got quite a few things that have popped in. So Matt is now the honorary third party on [00:34:00] this. When I released the podcast, I might ask to actually credit Matt at this rate. Well done Matt. They'll keep it coming. And Matt says, totally agree to u utilize chat G p T for briefs, questions on code.

Recently tested this on stadium railing Heights. They that's interesting. And assisting with providing novel descriptions for portfolio, even writing code for blender modeling steps. Wow. I've tested it for CSS on my website and it does work. So I do think it, it can, yeah, there's a few applications.

I wouldn't write a code for everything, it just gets you, gets your juices going in the right direction, which is the theme of this. isn't it? I don't see it replacing the Architect, but it's a great tool in the arsenal. But also, like you said, it's about your education and vocabulary and using the tools because if you are limited to this, then it's only gonna generate this.

Whereas you have to start experimenting and that does take time as well. And I think the last bit before we [00:35:00] open it up, I was gonna say is I think it's an initial bit of work at the start, like learning the AI platforms, experimenting. I think a lot of people I see may just jump into it and then they go, oh mid journey's not made my house.

Oh, whatever. So

Amir Noori: Yeah, they type in like beautiful house in like London and they expect 4k. Yeah, exactly.

Stephen Drew: it

Amir Noori: Um,

Stephen Drew: it's gonna take time, isn't it? It's gonna it's gonna take a lot of work. What I was gonna say, so we got one or two more points yet, if you still got a bit of time, if you tell me if you need

Amir Noori: yeah. Yeah,

Stephen Drew: go a

Amir Noori: I do.

Stephen Drew: Cuz I'm like, I enjoyed the tech and all the advice and stuff.

So that was a good shop in list for anyone going around. But what are the opportunities then for people in Architecture design to know to use ai? I touched upon using it for websites. You touched upon generating thing, images and, all those cool tools. But where do you see in the next [00:36:00] 60 months to one year, people using this stuff?

Is it gonna be like computational designers or bi managers and practices or do you see it kind of everyone using it a little bit?

Amir Noori: Yeah, I think it takes some time until everyone starts to use it. But I would say for answering this question I have a very interesting point because,

For the last few months that I have been putting my work, on my Instagram and like on my website and Aruba, I got like loads of interesting messages from non architects that they were offering, like collab projects.

And that was because for me, that I really always liked to, have my hand on like multiple things. Not only Architecture. It's been really exciting because one of the things that architects really want to do is that, how we can do other things than Architecture when they come out of university.

They're like, how I can make [00:37:00] money? Not only from Architecture, but like, how can I enter other kind of fields, creative fields, and how can I open, new avenues for income and things like that. So AI has made it very easy. A lot of art directors or creative directors or fashion designers or other people in creative industry reach out to me to offer collaborations and think that we can collaborate on really exciting projects, which are really amazing because as an Architect, because design and you know how to think in a way that you're solving your problem in terms of tackling the brief.

So you have that skill. The only bit that you are, makes you ar an Architect is that you're only proposing buildings as a solution to everything that you know is referred to you. So if you just don't propose buildings to every brief and every problem and open yourself up to other avenues of [00:38:00] working creatively in, in collaboration with other aspects in in other creative fields, as suddenly you have opened a whole new world for yourself, that you can be this creative person who has a powerful tool in its arsenal and be capable of.

Designing very mind blowing concepts for people who are looking for that specific skill in different industries. So I see a lot of potential for people in Architecture, but like generally people who are good InDesign and who know how to design and to open off their kind of realm of practicing.

And that, that really excites me a lot as well.

Stephen Drew: Nice. I I was gonna ask about architects outside Architecture, but you covered it there cause it opens up a lot of doors, doesn't it? And I think that, One of the things that comes with this [00:39:00] space. I think there's gonna be a lot of innovation. We talked about a lot of highs. Maybe there's gonna be a few mistakes made, but that's part of learning, isn't it?

We're gonna make mistakes. Things are gonna come and go. The thing I wanted to touch upon, so is a little bit about entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship, and on that note, let's talk about your AI hub. Come on. So I was seeing this thing floating around and I'll get your Instagram up briefly now while we're talking, but tell me about your AI hub.

Amir Noori: Yeah. So AI hub for people who don't know, it is a platform that I've been trying to. Spring into life with my co-founder Mo from a few months ago. And the idea was that when I first start started to work with ai, I generally felt that I needed to be a part of a community of designers, of like serious designers because there's so many people who are just like enthusiasts, InDesign, and [00:40:00] they just spend five minutes in AI to design something.

But there are actually people who design with AI and take design seriously in ai. So I want to be part of a community of designers who take AI very seriously and use it in their work. So I wanted to. Be part of this community, but there wasn't a community anywhere. And I wanted to see the works of other people who take design seriously in, in AI as well.

And, but I couldn't see it apart from like Instagram and, people who I knew already. So I wanted to be exposed to more designers in this field. And I wanted to see like a Pinterest of AI stuff and AI designs and AI concepts and that are only for AI and is only for AI designers to be there and create things and share things and people who are interested in AI as well.[00:41:00]

So there wasn't such thing. We thought, me and co-founder we thought let's build it. So we started to build something that we called AI Hub. And AI Hub is going to be the place to explore concepts that were generated with ai. So it is like a curated portfolio of work by designers very similar to how you see in websites like Bhes or Pinterest.

You would have an interface that is very easy and intuitive to work with, and you would see so many amazing concepts that people have uploaded. People either who were designers of the work or were enthusiasts and just like they wanted to share it with the world.

Stephen Drew: Nice.

Amir Noori: so that's the idea of AI Hub.

We designed it and we have built it now, but we haven't released it yet. So we are going to do a private testing with an exclusive group of, people who are [00:42:00] in the design community. We're in Architecture, as well as entrepreneurship, as well as tech, as well as people who we find value in terms of feedback for the first sort of iteration of the website.

And then after that we're gonna have a kind of big event where we invite designers who work with AI and they're quite famous in, in the field to participate and talk about what they do, and also invite people to present their work as well and invite designers to. Come from any different creative field to learn about the possibilities of AI and potentials in their particular field.

And that's gonna be the public release. And we're gonna release the product to to, who, whoever is interested to use it. And that's coming probably in April time. But we have a, we have an Instagram page, it's called ai hop.ai. For people who are [00:43:00] interested, they can follow us. And yeah, see if we have any events coming up or if you like to participate in our event for launching.

We would be more than happy to see you there in the public release.

Stephen Drew: Very cool. Don't invite me. I'll end up crashing it. And I don't have much, and actually if you did look on my mid journey, like what I've added. Yeah. I don't know. If you were to come here, you'd be like, Steve, this is how much amateur hour. I think I started off as that person with that terrible line going building 4k, rain London.

But getting there, I'm

Amir Noori: That's how you saw, that's how you saw, but then you developed that skill.

Stephen Drew: It's like everything else, isn't it? The fact is, there's that, there's this book, I read it years ago and it talked about, I think it's by Malcolm Gladwell about, you gotta do 10,000 hours to be the expert in anything. At the time I thought it was a really boring book, but I was quite young.

And it's [00:44:00] true though. You've gotta do 10,000 hours of any profession to be amazing. Think about how quick how recent AI's been around. If people dabble with it, then they're gonna learn. And the last thing before I open it up is, that's why everyone calls it practice in Architecture.

You got architects still doing Architecture until they're like blooming 70 years old, whatever, never fully retiring because it's always the next thing. You are always learning. And I think that AI and tech is gonna be. Similar thing. It's just started, but that's why I find it really exciting.

However, all I like to do at this point, cuz we've done a good slog now and people have had a good few tips and we've had a nice conversation. Equally though, I think it's good that you get to ask me any questions. And this could be about the Architecture Social, this could be about I work with a lot of Architecture practices on recruitment, on hiring, if that involves ai.

What's your, is there anything you want to ask me?

Amir Noori: Yeah, I would [00:45:00] ask you would you change any of your processes if you were told that you could outsource it to ai? Maybe or another question is how are you thinking that AI is changing your recruitment business in the next five to 10 years?

Stephen Drew: Yeah, good question. AI is not going away, and I see it as a massive opportunity to save time, but also it's like I'm just tired hiring people in the Architecture Social. And some tasks when you get people and they're like a pain in the ass, it's gonna be a pain in the ass. You know that when this person's gonna do it, they're gonna hate it.

It's the kind of thing like, in Excel, if you don't use a macro and you do something manually and you look at that person and you're like, what are you doing? Are you okay? Are you not want, do you not want to just kill yourself? And I think that, Where I see the opportunity with AI is it's giving people [00:46:00] the macro, it's like basically saying, let's just do all that rudimentary, awful, painful stuff and let's concentrate on the good stuff.

And I've heard all kind of things like job boards are gonna go out of business, all this stuff for ages with robots. And the reality is there'll always need to be someone involved in recruitment at some point because it's a human process. That being said though, there's a lot of parts in that can opt, that AI can help with.

like a cover letter. People wonder about writing a cover letter. I think covering letters in recruitment are the perfect things for you to use AI on. And that sounds sacrilege if probably a few Architecture practices, which would be which would be outraged by that sentiment.

But if you think about what a covering letter is, okay, there's a few personalized nuggets in there, but by and large it's this rudimentary document that's a [00:47:00] supportive act. Cuz the truth is if the CV ain't good, yeah, probably not gonna get the job and the portfolio's gotta wow someone. But that covering that era is this pain in the ass part of a of looking for a job where you can just use that in chat gpt.

But again, Like the exact same theme that we've used in me. If someone says, write me a cover in that it's gonna give you a generic one. If you said, I am an Architect who's passionate about this subject, and I use Revit and I'm in London and I'm available on one month's notice as, and I'm looking for a salary of this and I, I've got no Visa requirements and I'm really interested in the work of whatever practice, if you've put that you, it will probably generate an amazing framework which you then could use.

And then I would argue that's not the AI is covering there, that's yours because you've directed it well. So i e exactly like the same kind of [00:48:00] themes that we talk about Architecture. I think it would be really useful. And the last point that I will use is that, yes, I think it's very quick to think about like mid journey.

It's very visual, but actually Architecture practices of businesses. And if you think of all the applications where AI can be used to optimize the business of Architecture, I think that you could save a lot of time and money. And that's a really great thing. Why would you not use AI if you can optimize the process?

So that's my thoughts.

Amir Noori: Another one? Because it was a great answer. I would ask you, what do you think or have you come across any practices that are looking for. Specific people for roles that involve working with AI currently in Architecture? Or if not, do you see in future that people will be, looking for people practices will be looking for people [00:49:00] who are capable of working with ai.

And do you think people who have those type of skills are gonna be in demand or not?

Stephen Drew: Yeah. Yes. It's a complicated answer though, and I'll base it on a reference point. So 10 years ago when I got into recruitment, and I'm a bit of a computer nerd, outed myself before we went live, talked about alien work computers and so on and so forth, right? I love all that stuff and I was really passionate about the scene.

And then when I got into recruitment, I was like, oh my gosh, I've gotta be involved in computational design. And there were a few key people in that space. But it wasn't a particularly active area in terms of recruitment. There was a few key people and that was it. And I think now computational design is actually a role that we see advertising much more, but it's taken 10 years, Amir, to get to that level.

Equally though, this is where I would say it gets really interesting, so I think Grasshop as a really great [00:50:00] example where in London there's a specific meetup group for Grasshopper, and the reality is there's a reason why recruiters are not really involved in it, because those who are passionate about it or meet each other every month, and then when someone's looking for a job, they go, oh, I'm thinking of looking.

Or if someone needs something for their team, the smart people, the smart hiring managers or whatever will be involved in that group and go Hey, Amir. I dunno, are you in between things at the moment? And you might go, oh no, I'm all right. Or you might go, yeah, I'm looking, and or you might go, I'm not looking, but my mate, who's really got a grasshopper is.

And so I think that the trick is being out there and being relevant. And I think the more engaged you are with communities like AI hub or whatever, then job opportunities are gonna come to you and they're not gonna be advertised. So you're ahead of the curve and you create opportunities for yourself, which weren't even there.

And I think that's a really good case study for how you [00:51:00] should be how you should think about your professional career if you become an expert in an area. Over time, you get known for that. And I think what I would say is even stuff like this, you are on this podcast now, you've created the AI hub and I, and everyone can start doing these things, but we just have to start doing it.

But when you start putting yourself out there, I think things come to you. People ask you questions, maybe a job opportunities doesn't come straight away, but you're creating all these opportunities and it leads to great things. So that's a long answer to what you said, but I do see opportunities being there, but I don't see them being advertised on job boards or anything because I see these opportunities in these niche hubbs, of exciting activity.

And I reckon there's probably, like you mentioned, and there's, key people in the space. If you are looking for someone to do work with you, you're gonna instantly message 10 people. And I think [00:52:00] that's the key thing. So there is opportunities there, but you've gotta be involved in the space and you've gotta participate and you've gotta expose yourself a little bit, which is a little bit scary, but we're all learning.

So hopefully that's useful

insight.

Amir Noori: a great answer. Yeah, I really appreciate that. Hope people who are listening as well, they put themselves out there if they have any particular skills that they think it's rare to find you'll definitely find like-minded people if you put yourself out there.

Stephen Drew: Yes. And on that note, this is probably a nice way to wind it down, so we've gone through a lot at the moment, so you'll get through virtual round of applause. This is the perfect reason why people should participate in the AI hub when it comes out. So I know it's in alpha at the moment, but people can still get in touch with you, right?

People can find out where you are or bring up the links. But in your words, can you tell us how people reach out [00:53:00] to you then at the moment?

Amir Noori: Yeah, sure. You can either follow my Instagram page my handle is Amir Hossein nouri with double S and o and you can email me at hello amir hossein nouri.com. And I think or you can, yeah, you can go on my YouTube channel and see my videos. Yeah, I think that's enough of different ways to reach me.

Stephen Drew: Perfect. Brilliant. On that note, and thank you, a shout out to the third person who is on this episode, which is Matt Menendez. I love participating and I love when people add comments and questions to the live stream. Thank you so much, Matt and Matt endorses what I said, so don't just take my word for it.

Take Matt's as well. But

Amir Noori: Another round of applause for Matt

Stephen Drew: Yes.

Amir Noori: cuz he is been amazing here.

Stephen Drew: That is a good, that is a good point. So Amir, you've been the gentleman as well and thank you [00:54:00] so much. So I'm gonna end the live stream in one second, but do check out Amir's work. I think it's amazing. Do follow the AI hub. I will sign up as well. I won't be the best person, but I'll mess around.

I like to, play around with these things and let us, let me know what your thoughts are on AI as well. We've got a few more episodes coming up, but this was a good one. Enjoy the rest of your evening. There'll be more content coming soon and play around with that AI and if you mess up, who cares?

Cuz that's the whole fun of it. And maybe one day when the robots replace us and we are all in the nursing home, or we're playing World of Warcraft 4D, or whatever the heck, we've got good story to tell. But until then, I don't think the robots have replaced us and use a few of those AI tools so that you're not doing the most mundane stuff.

You're doing the exciting bit. Let the AI do the crap. Excuse my language, I should have got my button out. Let the AI do the all the things you don't want to do. I'm gonna end [00:55:00] the live stream now. Thank you so much Ami. Stay on the stage and thank you for in the audience for being here. See you soon.

Take care. Bye.